30 ,,-...,,,.'v - J j ,:" ," .. ".. ',' -.:::":-:. . '"':". .f.";'- , " ' , '" :': -:: . ':.:. :..:-.:. - .". ."; "' ':""::: :-':.., .... . ....... .... .......... --. , '. -' :':" . "....:: "' ': ". .- .::: - \ : . ...".: ;". "..;- _. * .. aæ."" * S AMUEL SLOTKIN, president and chairman of the board of the H ygrade Food Products Corpo- ratiun, the seventh largest meat-packing company In the nation, is one of the last of the uninhibited millionaires. The race is dying out fast. In these days of the social conscience and the over- powering surtax, it has become unfash- ionable to be overtly rich. Circumscrihed though he is by the Collectur of Internal Revenue, Slotkin does his best to act like a millionaire. His gold-plated behavior, however, is nicely tempered by the un- affected enjoyment he derives from regal splendor. He has an enormous amount of social stamina and is hap- piest when arranging a party for fifty or sixty friends. Even his approach to the routine business of dining out is strongly reminiscent of the late Dia- mond Jim Brady. He likes to sweep into an expensive restaurant, scattering . largess to the functionaries, and, in a jolly but dignified manner, work his way through a high-calory menu and a fancy wine list. Of the thousand Hygrade products, Slotkin is fondest of hIS all-beef frankfurters, and he gener- ally orders a few of them, no matter what else he ':11ay be eat ng. As he pro- gresses through the meal, he occasional- ly encounters an item so noteworthy that he summons its author from the kitchen. "Is a wery fine fish," he may ten the chef, then hand hi!ll a twenty-dollar bill and add, "Get yourself a nice smoke- on Slotkin " Slotkin was born in Russia and speaks English with a slight, musical accent. His early life in Russia, he recalls, was stringent. He is still impressed by the Inechanical marve]s of .LL\.merica. In par- p R F a I 5 0: 0 o L c DIGNIFIED MEA T-II ticular, he is delighted with American railroads. If, when he was a child in the old country, he approached a station- master and asked, "What time is the next train for Plosk? ," he was not sur- prised to learn that, assuming nothing went wrong, one was expected along sometime in the spring. Today, as a re- sult, he rides on trains as often as he can. Even if he did not enjoy it, he would have to do a lot of travelling because his company, which has its headquarters in New York, operates sixty-six plants around the country lnd abroad. Slot- kin off for a train trip is an agreeable sight. By now he is known to a good Inany of the country's trainmen. He makes even a jaunt to Utica sugges- tive <?f Caesar's triumphal return from Carthage. Recently, he took a trip to one of his Chicago plants. He arrived at his train a half hour before it was to pull out. He was followed down the platform by a party consisting of family and friends who had come to see him uff, and they in turn were followed by several Hy- grade representatives carrying hams, canned bacon, all-beef frankfurters, fifty-cent cigars, champagne, and as- sorted table wines and spirits-enough for Slotkin's own dinner that night and u breakfast next morning, pI us provisions for any friends he might make on the train and a feast for the dining-car crew. After Slotkin had shaken hand" with the conductor and a cuuple uf porters whu recognized him, he went into his draw- ing room with his party. The Hygrade men proceeded to the dining car, where they deposited the supplies, then joined the group in Slotkin's quarters. Several bottles of iced champagne were brought in, and everybody had a good time. Slot- kin rang for the porter of his car, hand- ed him a large bilJ and a fifty-cent cigar, and carried on an expert discussion with him about the problems facing the sleep- ing-car porters' union. As passengers drifted by, Slotkin invited them in and pressed champagne and cigars on them. That night he dined in his drawing room with a few new and slightly dazed friends. He arrived in Chicago in the best possible health and spirits, and made a thoroughly successfu] inspection of his plant. His trip back, three days later, was similar to the trip out. For all his seeming extravagance, SlotkIn invariably knows exactly what he is spending, and he is scornful of men who don't keep track of how much money they have on theine He always carries a large sum, which he keeps in three billfolds, one for tens to thou- sands, one for fives, and one for ones. In order not to appear vulgar, he keeps his large bills concealed between the tens. He carries new currency, so far as possible. When he has an accumula- tion of shabby bills, he goes to his bank and exchanges them for crisp ones. De- spite the fact that on days when he gets into the groove he un]oad enough cash to set another man up in a small busi- ness, he is constantly auditing his wal- lets. After handing a new dollar bill u to a bootblack, he may walk away mut- tering to himself, "O.K. Now "there's eight thousands, six hundreds, five tens, twenty-three fives, fourteen ones-six of them wrinkled-a fifty-cent piece, two quarters, and a Canadian dime." This mental arithmetic, his friends feel, is proof of an uncommunly tidy mind. When Slotkin sees 2 man pull a tousled wad of bills out of a trousers pocket, he shakes his head. "That fellow will never be rich," he often says to anybody within earshot. T HE paradox of the free-spending . bookkeeper is undoubtedly trace- able in part to Slotkin' s childhood in Russia. The president of Hygrade was born in 1885 in the town of Koidenoev, in the province of Minsk. His father, a TalmudIc scholar, was a teacher in a private schooL Samuel was the young- est of nine children, six boys and three girls. Koidenoev was a poor town; the inhabitants practiced strict economy and took their recreation in reading ahout u the rakehelly life in the court of Nich- olas II. Samuel's brothers and sisters, ex- posed to a home atmosphere of scholar- ship and religion, were mostly dreamy, studious types, but Samuel, from birth, was set apart by a kind of high-combus- tion drive. When he was seven or eight, he recalls, he was recognized as a town character. For one thing, he matured rather young, and for another, he had uriusual physical strength. He was bare- ly twelve when the townspeople, in a rare tribute to precocity, elected him head of the Volunteer Fire Department. Under his guidance, it did some fine work on several blazing saloons and on one occasion rescued nine draft horses .from a stable before it burned down. As the boy moved into his teens, he hegan to hit his stride. He raised some cash by